6 Ideas to Fix Bad NFL Officiating

The NFL is on the brink of an officiating apocalypse. With three games left, the league has to pray that the outcomes don’t come down to a controversial call, as it did in Saturday’s Bills-Broncos game. They probably won’t be that lucky. There are too many close games that lend themselves to difficult officiating decisions.

Former NFL head of officiating Mike Pereira has advocated for making officials full-time employees. That won’t fix anything. Calling these games accurately at this speed will never be achievable by humans. Technology has raised expectations for accuracy and now there’s no going back. Can you imagine a tennis judge trying to call every serve in or out without Hawk-Eye technology? Soon, computers will call balls and strikes in baseball, making us question how humans ever managed that task. Football risks falling behind if it doesn’t continue to embrace innovation.

Fortunately for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, I have some suggestions. You’re not going to like them all. There’s some short-term pain that will ultimately lead to a better product.

Six against the grain fixes for NFL officiating....

1. No limits on Replay Assist

The NFL should start aggressively calling games out of its New York officiating hub. Right now, the application of Replay Assist is vague. Fans need to be told that every call or non-call is subjected to instant video review and they have no guardrails. Replay assist should be allowed to nullify a flag or insert a penalty on any play. With no exceptions. That means someone in a controlled environment with the benefit of seeing a play three times can judge roughing the passer or defensive pass interference.

The game has evolved to the point that a normal amount of human error doesn’t fit. There’s no shame in the guys on the field getting things wrong. Hopefully they don’t take it personally. I want to see every bad call reversed. Even if it slows down the game or adds five minutes. In the age of legalized sports gambling, if you can easily get it right, you can’t afford not to.

2. Let the public in on the decision

Other pro leagues and different levels of football have let the audience hear the conversation between the replay official and the on-field official. It’s risky, because replay officials will be wrong at times as well. But it would be entertaining and clear up a lot of confusion.

After the Broncos’ Ja’Quan McMillian ripped an interception out of Bills receiver Brandin Cooks’ hands last Saturday, we didn’t even know if they were reviewing it. Finally, they slowed down just a little bit and looked at it. But we didn’t get to hear what they were thinking until after the game. The NFL obviously doesn’t want to be this transparent. It would help alleviate future headaches, especially with officiating conspiracy theorists who think the league is manipulating outcomes.

The NFL and the officials union won’t embrace this idea. But keeping a veil of mystery around the process will only further damage the league.

3. Call the rules as written

Right now, officials are tasked with making too many judgment calls. How much is too much contact to hinder the receiver’s ability to catch the football? Officials allow some contact and hand-fighting to keep from slowing the game to a crawl. It’s become like baseball’s neighborhood play at second base. The result is an inconsistent mess.

“When you watch NFL football all day long you just come to the conclusion our officials don’t know what pass interference is,” NBC’s Tony Dungy wrote on X. “We tried making it reviewable a couple of years ago and that didn’t help. But these are monster penalties that are not called consistently at all.”